In industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants, pipelines to be used as flow passages of various fluids flowing in an operation of the industrial facilities are installed. The pipelines have various shapes such as curved surfaces and pipe bends and various sizes. The pipelines need to be inspected in order to provide a smooth flow of fluids and to prevent leakage of the fluids.
When inspection of pipelines is performed while operating the industrial facilities, due to safety problems, for example, an automated inspection apparatus is used for inspection.
In general, the inspection apparatus has a structure in which a probe having a structure, in which a single-axis robot arm and an electromagnetic wheel are coupled to a body of the probe, is used in automatic inspection, and the probe moves along a guide rack that is mounted in advance in a circumferential direction of a pipeline to perform inspection of the pipeline. The guide rack is installed on an external circumferential surface of the pipeline before inspection using the inspection apparatus is performed.
In addition, the inspection apparatus is controlled such that the probe moves in scan and index directions that are input in advance, and here, the scan direction is an axial direction of the pipeline, and the index direction is a circumferential direction of the pipeline.
Meanwhile, since an operator has to install the guide rack on the external circumferential surface of the pipeline in advance, it may be difficult to install the guide rack while the industrial facilities are in operation. Moreover, the guide rack has to be removed from the pipeline after inspection is completed.
Also, it is difficult to install the guide rack in industrial facilities, which are substantially difficult for operators to access, such as pipelines of nuclear power plants.
In addition, if a support structure for supporting the pipelines interferes with movement of the inspection apparatus, separation and reinstallation of the inspection apparatus are to be repeatedly performed, and thus inspection may not be performed easily.